Swedish police approve small anti-Koran demonstration at mosque

Swedish police have given the go-ahead for a small demonstration to take place outside a Stockholm mosque on Wednesday at which the organisers said they would “tear up the Koran and burn it”, which could further complicate Sweden’s bid to join NATO.
A series of protests in Sweden against Islam and for Kurdish rights have heightened tensions with Turkey, whose backing Sweden needs to gain entry to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
While Swedish police have rejected several recent applications for anti-Koran demonstrations, the country’s courts have overruled those decisions, arguing that they infringed on protected freedom of speech.
In its permit for Wednesday’s demonstration, the police wrote that while it “may have foreign policy consequences”, the security risks and consequences linked to a Koran burning were not of such a nature that the application should be rejected.
According to the Stockholm police, only two people were expected to take part in the demonstration, including the organiser, who in a recent newspaper interview described himself as an Iraqi refugee seeking to ban the Koran.